Son of My Soul - Twelve

[ismenin]

Hello! It has been a beautiful day, here, but it's dark, now of course, and I'm just off to lie down, and read for a bit.

But before that, my loves - here is this week's offering. Hope you'll like it. I wish I had a physician like Darius, I do, I do! Hugs you all. xxxx





Thank you ladysunrope for beta. Hugses.



Part 12


Lij was weary, but his mind snapped to attention. "How far is it to Aapet's house?" he asked Panshi, quickly.

Panshi tore his eyes from the sick man and Dom, leaning over him, in distress.

"Not far...Lij. Just around the corner."

"Take us there! Menkh, Cassawn must be weary from watching. Carry Cormac, and follow us. We shall have him in bed in minutes, and comfortable. He shall not die!"

Menkh took Cormac out of Cass's unresisting arms, for he was indeed exhausted, and Panshi hurried off, followed by the others, and two physicians who, Ninus said sadly, were the best Alexandria could offer.

"Send them away! They look to have half-killed him already. I have a better doctor. Nakht, fetch Darius the physician to Aapet's house as soon as may be - from the Street of the Apothecaries - and hurry, man!"

Dom said nothing. He walked beside Menkh, holding his brother's cold hand, staring straight in front of him so that he should not weep.

Aapet came hurrying out of his house. "Take him inside, sir. One of my sons awaits you to show you the way."

Lij looked about him, half - dazed still from shock, but he saw it was a large house, and had hopes that Cormac would be comfortable there.

A lad, a little younger than Panshi, bowed as they entered and led Menkh, followed by the others, through the corridors into a spacious chamber, where a small, slim woman was just finishing smoothing down the bed.

Menkh put Cormac on the white linen sheets, and gently pulled the blankets from about him. "Lij, he is stone cold!" his cousin murmured, so that Dom, standing as if petrified at the foot of the bed, would not hear.

Lij looked at the woman. She seemed sensible enough, and looked expectantly at him. "Anything we can do to help, sir..." she began.

Lij remembered the cold in Erin. "Hot stones - bricks, swathed in soft cloths..." He could say no more.

Dom moved to the bedside, and took Cormac's hand again. "Hot bricks, yes."

The woman called softly, and a servant came and received her orders. Then Aapet arrived with the physician, Darius, who tersely demanded all leave the room except Dom, Lij and Cass.

"What ails him?" He wasted no time in examining his new patient, feeling the heat in his joints, noting the swellings.

Dom and Lij looked at Cass, who, they thought, spoke no Egyptian, and they were about to interpret for him, when he surprised them. He answered, clearly, if rather simply, in that language.

"The king had sickness because of cold, sir. We come from cold place. It makes... joints swell, and there is much pain. He sick with it many years, and the journey made worse, but he would come, he said."

Cass sat on a stool beside the bed, opposite Darius, and breathed deep and ragged, as if each breath was being torn from his chest. As if to himself, he said, in his own language, "he would come. He wished to see his brother, and the Great One again."

Darius said nothing. He poured out a strong-smelling liquid into a little silver cup, and held it to Cormac's lips. He swallowed it, and the man gave a grim smile of satisfaction. "He is very nearly awake. Keep him warm! I will go immediately and brew him a mixture. It will take several hours, and I must watch over it, or it will spoil, but it will ease the inflammation, and calm him. He is in much pain. I will send one of my boys over to sit with him, and observe his condition."

He glanced at Cass. "My lad will take notes. Try to remember the details of how this sickness came to afflict him - from the beginning." He bowed himself out, and Aapet and his wife entered the room, their faces full of concern.

"We are heating the stones as you ordered, sir. But it will take time," Aapet informed them. "My wife has ordered a honey posset to be made, which might relieve his throat. He seems to be very dry, she says."

The little woman beside Aapet bowed. "If you need anything do not hesitate to ask. Chambers are being prepared for you all - there is plenty of room."

Lij bowed back. "Thank you, Lady." It was clear that Aapet had not revealed to his wife the identity of her guests. She treated them as one would treat a social superior, but nothing more.

Not long afterwards, the 'lad' sent by Darius arrived. He was a man in his mid-forties - his was hair straight and black, but his eyes were of a clear blue, hinting at mixed heritage. He bowed politely at the group, and taking a stool, sat with a papyrus scroll on his lap, and held a piece of charcoal.

Cass told him Cormac's story, but he was so clearly exhausted that the moment he finished the telling, he all but fell off the stool, and Dom caught him, and laid him down on the floor, covering him with the discarded blankets.

A flash of blue caught Dom's eye, and he lifted it up. It was the cloak Lij had given Cormac so many years before, when they had been lovers for a short time. Dom carefully laid it over his brother's form, and was tucking it in carefully, when the bricks arrived.

They did not unwrap Cormac, but placed the hot stones about his body so he would not be burnt by them. Aapet's wife came back with a tray containing wine, and a servant followed with food. "Yes, I know," she commented sympathetically seeing their expressions, "that neither of you wish to eat, now. But how will you keep up your strength to look after your brother if you do not eat?"


Her manner reminded Lij so forcibly of his beloved grandmother Menep, long gone from them, that tears stung his eyes. They ate and drank in silence, and sat, one each side of the bed as Cormac lay there, not moving at all.

The physician's 'lad' was so quiet they forgot he was there. "Tell me," said Dom, when the silence became almost unbearable, "tell me the story of how he comes to be here. Poor Ninus - he dare not show his face, but it is hardly his fault - that Cormac is so weak, I mean."

Lij cleared his throat, and he looked, not at his spouse, but at Cormac's pale face. "Cormac wrote to me some time ago, in secret - when you saw Ninus with me, that time I kissed him, he had just handed me the letter. The kiss...was all he wanted in exchange for his aid. I offered him riches - he wanted a kiss..."

Lij rubbed his eyes, desperately not wanting to weep. "I was overjoyed because Cormac wished to come to Egypt," he said. "He wrote that his joints were getting stiffer, and that he would much prefer to spend the rest of his days in warmth and comfort. His two boys, the Fais had decided, were to be joint kings over Erin. They are good lads, are they not? Like our Jed. He, too will make a fine king...he is able, and willing to serve."

"Cormac said not to tell you that he was coming, as he would like it to be a surprise for you..."

There was a pause while Lij tried to compose himself, unable, for a moment, to continue. "He said that Cassawn was willing to accompany him. Since Cass's Brian died, and Cormac's wife, too, of that pestilence, six years ago, they had not been parted and thought to travel together."

"I arranged with Ninus for them to be brought back when he came this year. I did not know Cormac was so sick - and, judging by what Cass has just revealed to us, neither did he. Oh, Dom! My heart is scalded!"

Dom came quickly around the bed, and enfolded his spouse in his arms, soothing him. The physician went quietly out of the room. He had divined who they were, and would give his gods privacy to weep.

He returned a short time later to find that they had resumed their positions by the bed, and he bowed slightly as he hurried forward to examine his patient. "He is warmer...sirs," he hesitated. He did not like to show they had, in their distress, revealed themselves to him.

Dom smoothed the blue cloak, as the man tucked it in again. "I knew this would not be far from him. It is his most prized possession."

Lij looked up at this. "I remember well when I gave it to him. It was a great sorrow to me, at the time, that I could not love him as he wished, Dom, for he was deserving of better than I could give him. But you must know that there has only been you that I have truly loved; since first we met, I was yours."

Their eyes met across the bed. "I know, onam cora - I know."

Cormac stirred, and Dom quickly knelt beside his brother, and reached for his hand. "Cormac? Brother? It is I, Dom - and Lij, too, is here."

Cormac's eyes fluttered and opened. "Dom...and Lij?" His voice was weak, and he appeared slightly breathless. He tried to sit up, but the physician stopped him. "Do not move, I will raise you a little further, sir," he said in a firm voice, and easily lifted the sick man up on the pillows. "There! Now drink this."

He reached for the small cup and poured a little of the watered wine into it, and Cormac drank it, gratefully. When he was settled again, he asked, "where is Cass?"

It was Lij who answered, trying hard to keep his voice light. "If you listen carefully, you can hear him snoring. He is sleeping against the back wall."

Cormac closed his eyes for a moment. "He is very...tired, the holy Maeve bless him. He would not...sleep whilst I was awake...and the pain...kept me awake..."

"It seems not...to be so bad, now." Cormac looked at the physician. "Did you give...me something for it? It has been...very bad."

"We did. And my master has gone to brew you an excellent potion, an even better one, which will greatly relieve you, sir," the physician said, his expert glance raking over Cormac's face. "It will not be long. Then you can sleep a natural sleep."

Cormac nodded, too weary to say more. He closed his eyes. "Dom and Lij," he murmured, reaching out a hand to both. "Dom...and Lij, at last!"

***

They both sat quietly beside the stricken man, not talking, just holding his hands.

Nat and Nakht came in, followed by Ninus, and Lij shook his head and indicated that they should not talk. They went out into the corridor, and found an empty room with some chairs in it. The boy, who had been standing nearby asked if they wished for anything, and Ninus requested wine, his voice unsteady. He was clearly still very upset by Cormac's illness.

Lij looked at his cousin and his friends, and could not speak. How did one say it - that Cormac would not live? He excused himself, and asked the boy to show him the privy, and went off with him.

He sat there for a while, and wept. For Dom, for Cormac, for Cass and for himself. For, if he could not love Cormac as a lover, he did love him truly as a brother. After all this time waiting, to be sundered, before...

He waited until he was composed, and splashed some water on his face. As he was leaving he saw Darius waiting for him in the corridor.

The man bowed on one knee. "Exalted One," he began, but Lij brushed the ceremony away. "My Lord, it is doubtful if he will live. I can promise you nothing."

Lij leaned against the wall, and took a deep breath. "Does his brother - my spouse - know this? Have you told him?"

Darius shook his head. "Not yet. He is still with his brother, and the sick can hear much more than we know. I will leave that task to you."

He bowed, and left for his patient, and Lij took a few deep breaths before returning to his friends.

Ninus was desolate, Nat worried for his cousin and Dom, Nakht was concerned for them all. Menkh came in, and Lij spent some time explaining the situation to them.

"You were not to know," Menkh said to Ninus, sitting with his head in his hands. "It is not your fault he told no-one how ill he was. He wished to come here, to Dom and Lij. At least he has seen them, whatever...else happens."

Lij was not comforted. He sent them off to rest, and returned to the room where Darius and his assistant were tending to Cormac.

"Go to bed!" The physician said, shortly. "You both look exhausted, and what use will you be to us, tomorrow, when we may need your help? We must all sleep at some time."

"Will the medicine you have just given him keep him asleep, and free from pain?" Dom asked, his voice raw with anguish.

"It will," the Persian answered, not looking at Dom, his attention fixed upon his patient. "I do not think I will give him any more, tonight, Anum. Let us see if he wakens."

He spared Dom and Lij a glance. "I will sit with him, tonight. I will send for you...if needs be," he said, grimly. Neither man was in any doubt as to what he meant.

Aapet was waiting outside the room. "This is your chamber," he said, indicating the one next to Cormac's. "I thought you would like to be near him."

"You are very kind, Aapet," Lij said, as Dom seemed to be beyond speech. "We are very sensible of it, for we know it is not done because of what we are, but because we have become friends. That means much to us both - to be regarded as your friends."

Aapet bowed. "It is a great honour for me to number you amongst my friends, Grea...my Lord. You will find wine and juice, and a few pastries in there. My wife firmly believes men need a continuous supply of food and drink." He smiled briefly. "Call out if you need me. A servant will fetch me."

They did not bother to wash. They stripped, and got into bed, and Dom wound himself about Lij, and held on as if he was his anchor in a violent storm - which, indeed he was.

They did not speak, but gained comfort from each other's presence as they always did. Eventually, they fell asleep.


Lij was in a dark hall, lit only by torches stuck high up in sconces upon the walls. The bricks were obsidian black, shining, menacing. At one end of the room there was a raised dais, and upon that, a golden throne. Seated upon the throne, dressed all in purest white, his skin emerald green in the shadows, was Osiris, Lord of the Underworld. Standing at his side was someone Lij knew well - Anubis, the jackal-headed god.

Anubis's voice rolled out like thunder across the sky. "No, you are not dead, my brother," he said, fixing Lij with his piercing red gaze. "Nor are you like to be for many years, yet, nor the one you call spouse," he intoned, sonorously.

Lij gasped. Why was he here? It was Osiris who answered, as if he had spoken the words aloud.

"I am come to bargain. I will give you his life - Cormac Mac Airt's - in exchange."

"What do you mean - in exchange? In exchange for what?"

"In exchange for someone else's life - what else should I mean? You may choose."

Lij stood like a block of ice, his body trembling with fear. "Choose...what...?"

Osiris laughed, and the flames of the torches flickered. "Not what but whom, my Little Brother. We will spare Cormac to you, but another must die for it. Really, Lij, I had not thought you so obtuse. You choose whom it is to be."

Lij did not hesitate, even for a moment. "I will offer myself, if Dom may keep his brother."

Osiris laughed again, and whispered into Anubis's ear. He went off, and came back with a feather. The Feather of Ma'at.

"No, little one, you we cannot spare. However, in the house in which your body now sleeps, a servant is about to give birth to a sickly girl babe. I will take that babe, if you so wish. The infant will probably die, anyway - it is a fair exchange. What say you?"

Lij did not give it more than a passing thought. "No," he said, his voice firm. "As god and king I have sentenced the guilty to die, but in no wise would I do such a thing to an innocent babe. It is not a worthy act, either for a king, or a man."

"So Cormac will die?" Anubis pressed.

Lij shrugged. "If you have marked him for death, I have no say in the matter. But for Dom's sake, and for mine, I ask you to spare him. Cormac is a good man, his heart will weigh light against the feather of justice. He has no evil in his soul."

"That I know," Osiris said; his voice slithered across the room like a snake. "I have already had it twice upon the scales, for he has been passing ill upon his journey. I know his worth."

There was a pause that hung heavy in the air, as if many unseen spirits were listening, before Osiris spoke again.

"Very well, Little Brother. This is my decision. Cormac will live, or he will die, according to your strength or weakness. If you can sit beside him for four days and nights without sleep, he will live. You will be allowed to leave him for short periods as nature demands, but if you so much as close your eyes to rest, he will die."

"You can tell no-one what you are doing - not even hint at it. In this you will have to fight against others, as well as against yourself. It will be a hard task, for your body is already weary, and you will get no more sleep, tonight. When your ordeal is over, I will send our faithful Anubis to tell you if you have succeeded, or if you have failed. When you see and hear him again, you will know that your ordeal is over, one way or the other. It begins in the morning, shortly after the dawn invocation. That is my offer. Do you accept it?"

"I accept..."

"Fare thee well, my Little Brother...."


Lij jerked awake with such force that he woke Dom, who murmured sleepily, putting out a hand to touch his spouse. "What is it, my love?"

Lij kissed him on the cheek. "Nothing, a stor. Just one of those jumping things the body does on occasion. Go back to sleep." He hated lying, especially to Dom, of all people, but, to save Cormac's life, he would do even that which he abhorred.

Dom settled, and soon fell, once again, into a deep sleep. Lij lay awake, thinking of the morning, when it would begin.

To save Cormac for Dom was of vital importance. His own discomfort - even his pain - must not be counted.

Lij lay awake until he heard the first bird-song, then he rose and knelt by the window, and offered up the prayer to Ra, so that he should rise upon the world that day. But he said it quietly, so as not to disturb the sleeper nearby.

Before the sun had risen over the eastern mountains he was in place at Cormac's side, holding the sleeping man's hand. There was nothing else he could do except think on the ironies of his life, when, in one moment he was Lord of All, and commanding, for those who would murder, that the thread of life be severed, and the next he was fighting to save a thread of life already fraying by the hour.

Four days and nights was the bargain he had made. He prayed silently for the strength to endure.






A manip by Rich - 'Future' - probably in which (ndiana Jones finds the tomb of Dom n Lij under the Sphynx, but decides to leave the lovers unmolested. It's what I'd do, too.

Comments

[laeliacatt.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor everyone! Cormac is so weak but Lij is strong. It will be an ordeal but he loves Cormac and would do anything to spare his Dom more pain. I believe in him. I think he can conquer this test that Osiris has given him.

I wish we had a "Darius" too! My husband is about to fire his doctor. Can we borrow Darius? :D

I like the manip! Even before I read your caption, I thought of Indiana Jones when I saw the hat. :)

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is wrenching! Poor Cormac. Poor Dom and Lij. So much grief for all of them. But I'm sure Lij can pass the test.

[frolijah-fan-54.livejournal.com]

What a shock to have Cormac arrive - and then so near death. Poor Dom and Lij. I love how Lij took charge even through his own shock and grief - and then his strength when speaking with Osiris - of COURSE he wouldn't sentence even a sick baby to death. He's going to be battling quite a few people who love him and will be worried for him over the next 4 days - but he is strong and he'll do it. And then there will lots of comfort for him - YAY!! - and lots of love.

We could ALL use a Darius - can we clone him?

That manip is fabulous - Rich is very good!! BTW - I so appreciate the offer you made to have him work on the pic of my family for me - I'm still waiting for my brother to email it me *sigh* so I can send it on to you. I so appreciate your offer of help.

I love this story so much - I'm already wishing it was next Sunday!! *hugs*

[primula-baggins.livejournal.com]

First, awwww, you used Osiris! I don't know if you did that on purpose, but I like to think so.

Next, eeek! I hope Lij can do it. If he doesn't then what's in store? I know, we'll find out later.

I love the manip by Rich.

[verangel.livejournal.com]

I wasn't able to read this until this morning. What an emotional chapter. So much of it had such intimate detail of compassion and concern for Cormac and for Dom and Lij. I always have a hard time with the fact Lij and Cormac were lovers, but then there is a beauty in the fact that Dom understands what happened and accepts the love he knows Cormac always held in his heart for Lij that Lij could not give back. Cormac is a good soul and that was shown so well in Osiris admitting to this having weighed him on the journey.
I LOVED when Lij revealed the nature of "the kiss" with Ninus. To think that this kiss meant more to the man then wealth was moving and a tribute to Lij. I was so sad when Lij broke down. So torn with grief over the situation.
The Gods think so highly of their little king. I was in love with the way Lij spoke of not judging in the taking of an innocent life and refusing to do so with the baby girl but I thought...NO WAY when he said he would die. This is his way, to sacrifice for Dom and Cormac, but this would be the death of Dom too. He would not survive the loss of Lij. The 4 days will be hell on him. Dom will not understand and it will be hard on him also.
I can't wait until next week. I love this story so much hugs you xooxoxoxxo v
ps. The manip was GORGEOUS! It was comforting to see them in final state together in the large secret tomb. I would hope it would be left untouched.

[janejanejane.livejournal.com]

Thanks for another excellent chapter!

Lij has a task there, staying awake for four days and four nights, but if anyone can do it, he can! All for the sake of Cormac *bless*
He's such a wonderful character - strong, powerful, awesome and yet caring and loving and very human. Like Dom, I absolutely adore him!

Great manip from Rich :-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/tweedle_/]

What a twist! I'm very glad that Lij wouldn't bargain with an innocents life. Very intriguing chapter! :) xxoo

[ismenin.livejournal.com]

Hugses! Thank you! ;D xxx